Leeds Farnley Park: Teachers 'bullying' strike UPDATED

Teachers today told of the "culture of fear" at a Leeds high school which led them to walk out on strike.

More than 30 teachers staged a walkout from Farnley Park Mathematics and Computing College on Wednesday amid claims they are being bullied.

* Click here to sign up to free news and sport email alerts from your YEP.

They blame the school's new boss - former Headteacher of the Year John Townsley - who took over the struggling school last September after the sudden death of former head Bill Pullen.

* Click here to follow the YEP on Twitter.

Teachers say Mr Townsley - who previously oversaw the transformations of ailing Morley and Rodillian high schools - has introduced drastic new measures.

And while they agree that standards should be driven up, they object to his methods, such as testing their "capability" and "constant monitoring".

Around 20 teachers - the school has just over 50 of them - are set to leave at the end of term, many because they say can no longer face working at the school.

Speaking to the YEP, one teacher said: "It has become impossible for me to work there, that's why I'm leaving.

"The way they (the management] speak to you, the amount of work that is

expected from you, the pressure that they put on you ... they are really unrealistic demands.

"I have no objection to what he (Mr Townlsey] is trying to do, it's just how it is being done."

Another teacher, who is leaving with no job to go to, added: "There is a culture of fear. You always feel like you are always under inspection and you are only as good as your last observation. It's like having Big Brother watching you the whole time.

"He (Mr Townsley] is impatient to make things happen but he doesn't seem interested in the impact it has on his staff."

The strike was a joint action by all three teaching unions represented at the school: the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) and the National Union of Teachers (NUT).

Amir Mohammed, the Leeds officer of the NASUWT, said: "The teachers have not taken this action lightly - they did not want to disturb the children's education. But, after long negotiations with Education Leeds, they felt they had no other option.

"They feel there is bullying and intimidation going on and that they are being mistreated. The head has been hammering staff on minor points of their practice.

"If you have issues in your job, where you need some support, you expect to be treated with professionalism and in a civilised manner, not to be shouted at."

The school was open as normal yesterday (wed) after replacement staff were drafted in from other schools.

Mr Townsley was unavailable for comment but has previously said: "You cannot be an outstanding school if you bully, harass and harangue your colleagues."

He also has the support of the chairman of governors Robert Greaves who has accused union members of "deliberately and unlawfully" victimising Mr Townsley.

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's Editors' Code of Practice.
If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the
Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the IPSO by
clicking here.

Yorkshire Evening Post provides news, events and sport features from the Leeds area. For the best up to date information relating to Leeds and the surrounding areas visit us at Yorkshire Evening Post regularly or bookmark this page.

For you to enjoy all the features of this website Yorkshire Evening Post requires permission to use cookies.

Find Out More ▼

What is a Cookie?

What is a Flash Cookie?

Can I opt out of receiving Cookies?

About our Cookies

Cookies are small data files which are sent to your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome etc) from a website you visit. They are stored on your electronic device.

This is a type of cookie which is collected by Adobe Flash media player (it is also called a Local Shared Object) - a piece of software you may already have on your electronic device to help you watch online videos and listen to podcasts.

Yes there are a number of options available, you can set your browser either to reject all cookies, to allow only "trusted" sites to set them, or to only accept them from the site you are currently on.

However, please note - if you block/delete all cookies, some features of our websites, such as remembering your login details, or the site branding for your local newspaper may not function as a result.

The types of cookies we, our ad network and technology partners use are listed below:

Revenue Science ►

A tool used by some of our advertisers to target adverts to you based on pages you have visited in the past. To opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Google Ads ►

Our sites contain advertising from Google; these use cookies to ensure you get adverts relevant to you. You can tailor the type of ads you receive by visiting here or to opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Digital Analytics ►

This is used to help us identify unique visitors to our websites. This data is anonymous and we cannot use this to uniquely identify individuals and their usage of the sites.

Dart for Publishers ►

This comes from our ad serving technology and is used to track how many times you have seen a particular ad on our sites, so that you don't just see one advert but an even spread. This information is not used by us for any other type of audience recording or monitoring.

ComScore ►

ComScore monitor and externally verify our site traffic data for use within the advertising industry. Any data collected is anonymous statistical data and cannot be traced back to an individual.

Local Targeting ►

Our Classified websites (Photos, Motors, Jobs and Property Today) use cookies to ensure you get the correct local newspaper branding and content when you visit them. These cookies store no personally identifiable information.

Grapeshot ►

We use Grapeshot as a contextual targeting technology, allowing us to create custom groups of stories outside out of our usual site navigation. Grapeshot stores the categories of story you have been exposed to. Their privacy policy and opt out option can be accessed here.

Subscriptions Online ►

Our partner for Newspaper subscriptions online stores data from the forms you complete in these to increase the usability of the site and enhance user experience.

Add This ►

Add This provides the social networking widget found in many of our pages. This widget gives you the tools to bookmark our websites, blog, share, tweet and email our content to a friend.